POTTSTOWN — The Virtual Learning Academy run by the Pottstown School District is not only becoming increasingly popular, but between its function as an alternative to cyber-charter schools and use for alternative education, it has already saved taxpayers nearly $650,000 this year.

“That’s phenomenal, that you can educate kids and save that amount of money is a real boon to the taxpayers,” said Pottstown School Board President Judyth Zahora.

The news was among the many aspects of the program outlined Thursday by LaTanya White, the district’s supervisor of virtual and alternative learning, during a presentation to the school board.

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The program provides essentially the same services as a cyber-charter school (school districts are not allowed to establish their own cyber charter schools under current law), and has seen its enrollment increasing in the current school year.

It is actually the fourth year that Pottstown has been using much of the curriculum and software infrastructure, but it was first used only selectively while the district staff familiarized themselves with the program and its capabilities and drawbacks, White explained.

Further, initial efforts to establish the enterprise as a virtual school were aimed at winning back students who had left the district’s traditional brick-and-mortar programs to pursue their education at one of the Commonwealth’s 16 cyber-charter schools.

The savings from winning students back from cyber-charters comes from the fact that the district must pay the same $8,955 per-student cost to cyber-charter schools that it pays to brick-and-mortar charter schools, even though it costs much less to operate a cyber-charter school.

(Recent changes to how statewide test scores are calculated now indicate that not a single Pennsylvania cyber-charter school has met the federal No Child Left Behind benchmarks by which school performance is current evaluated.)

Both to save money and because he believed Pottstown offered a better education, it was a goal of former superintendent Reed Lindley that the district try to recapture some of that money by luring back some of those students who left for a virtual education.

However, “our initial enrollment numbers were low,” White said of the district’s first efforts, noting only eight cyber-school students returned to the district.

But when the district shifted focus from winning back those who had left, to working to prevent new students from leaving in the first place, the numbers began to climb as word spread, she said.

Now in its second year as a full virtual academy, White said efforts to market the program both internally, with families who might be considering a change, and externally to the broader community, the numbers are beginning to stack up.

During the first marking period, the program had 27 students enrolled and 10 more joined in the second marking period.

There are several benefits for Pottstown students who use the virtual academy, said White.

One is that “they are 100 percent, Pottstown School District students,” said White, meaning they are free to participate in clubs, athletics, after-school programs and all other district facilities and programs.

Additionally, Pottstown’s virtual academy has reached out to community partners who augment local educational opportunities for the virtual students.

The “plug-in” partners, as they are called, are the YMCA, the YWCA, ArtFusion 19464, Steel River Playhouse, Music on High, i-Create Cafe, Pottstown CrossFit and The Mercury.

At the plug-in partners, which virtual academy students can go to work, or to access enrichment programs from theater, to music, to art, to physical fitness.

White said another phenomenon the district has begun to notice is that several of the cyber students, 13 to be exact, “are actually coming back into the buildings” as a result of being with the virtual program.

The program has also turned out to be an excellent way to prevent drop-outs and has increased attendance by 10 percent, said White.

“When you have students who get into difficulty, or maybe get pregnant, and don’t feel that they want to be in the school building, this is a good way for them to continue to stay in school and finish their education,” she said.

The other half of the virtual equation is how the program helps those who have left the classroom not by choice, and enrolled in the district’s alternative education program, White explained.

“We have always wanted alternative education to be temporary, and to work the students back into the classroom when they can control their behavior,” White said.

Using Pottstown teachers through the virtual academy ensures the students stay on track with their in-school classmates and are right where they should be when they return, White explained.

This “in-house” alternative education, which serves kids in grades 6 through 12 and has two teachers for every 10 students, has served 49 students this year and has saved taxpayers nearly $343,000, said White.

Those savings are a result of a decrease in the number of alternative education students the district has to send out to contractors outside the school program.

“This makes me happy,” said Zahora, “because I have been worried that once we send disruptive students out to some of these programs, that we don’t necessarily have a good handle on the kind of education they’re receiving.”

Which is not to say everything is perfect with the virtual efforts, said White.

Although the staff generally finds the three virtual programs to work well, there are some concerns about its lack of flexibility, she said.

“When you’re talking about things being on-line, it’s all about engagement,” said White. “You can have the best curriculum in the world, but if it’s not engaging and the students are not engaged in the lessons, then the students are just not going to pay attention.”

She also identified concerns about accountability for students and parents alike, something the district is addressing by having both student and parents sign a contract making them accountable to participating in the programs fully.

To address concerns about engagement, White said she is working on researching other providers to see if the district can augment or replace current programs with those whose curriculum is equal or better to what is used now, but is more interactive for the students.